After two victories in the group, Georgian U18 team lost the first match on the European Championship. Temur Kankia’s team had an important rival – North Macedonia, which was undefeated in the group C as well as our team. The winner of this match would become a leader and in fact, would gain a playoff ticket. Unfortunately, Macedonians got these advantages. They played with more accuracy and mobilization.
Georgians couldn’t rasist the universal player of Macedonia – Andrej Jakimovski, who had 33 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Jakimovski scored 4/7 three-pointers and 13/13 free throws. Viktor Isajloski also scored 5 three-pointers and the main reasons, why Georgians lost this match was exactly long range shoots. Georgian players missed many free three-pointer shoot. Scored just 4 out of 28 attempt. Macedonians scored 10/27.
At the last moment, their 2 three-pointers decided the fate of the match. 2 minutes before the final siren, the score was equal – 77:77, when Jakimovski and Isajloski scored 2 three-pointers in a row and Macedonia advanced 83:77 1:16 minutes before the end. Georgians weren’t able to tie the game after all and lost 79:87 eventually.
Lasha Miqeladze became a top scorer with 20 points in our team. Rati Andronikashvili scored 19 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Vova Tavaqarashvili had 10 points and 9 rebounds. Irakli Kiladze collected 8 points and 8 rebounds.
Macedonians became leaders of the group. Georgia and Ukraine have 2/3 victories. They will meet on July 30 and in fact, the winner will gain a playoff ticket
